Friday, February 12, 2016

Genesis 3: Old Testament Survey

Genesis 3: The Fall & original Sin

This is a survey of the books of the Old Testament. I will not be doing a chapter and verse, line by line analysis, but rather a general survey with the goal of introducing these books ad what they are all about to Catholics (and anyone else) who have not yet undertaken to read them for themselves, as many Catholics have told me is the case with them The goal is to demonstrate how the Old Testament is relevant to the New testament, and to the teachings of the Church itself. Above all, I hope to pique interest and encourage people to read the Old Testament for themselves, and be able to understand it in iys proper context. Today, we look at Genesis 3. To look at others in this series, there will be links to each one in the sidebar

Genesis Chapter 3 sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. Adam and Eve
have the perfect life in the garden of Eden. No work, all peace and pleasure,
and total freedom... Except in one matter, they were told they could eat of any
tree in the Garden except the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil.

So
along comes a character who is introduced as “The Serpent”. We do not know if
he was actually a snake in the sense we know them today, but he was apparently a
very beautiful and subtle creature. What we do know is that the Serpent was a
manifestation, of and possibly indwelling of the evil one himself, Satan.

He approached Eve, and suggested that she try the fruit of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When eve protested, and told her that they had
ben told that they would die if hey ate of the fruit of that tree, the serpent
came back and told her that she surely would not die, and that besides, God did
no want them to eat of it because it would them just like Him, all knowing, in
fact a god!.

So Eve was convinced and took a bite of the fruit, and then encouraged Adam
to give it a try since it tasted so good.

So what’s the point in all
this? Satan is working today with us, from a very old playbook. When it comes
to our being enticed to sin, is the temptation often packaged and sold to us as
God being something of a tyrant and holding back from us something we would
REALLY enjoy?

It also shows us how the devil mixes a little truth into
every lie. The fruit probably DID look appealing and no doubt tasted great when
they first ate it. No doubt Adam was convinced because Eve was standing there
before Him very much alive, so he discounted God’s admonishment that eating it
would cause him to die.
But like in our time when we are tempted into sin, w
convince ourselves that it’s not really THAT bad or dangerous, and what’s wrong
with a little fun every now and then? And then when we do , quite often there is
no immediate consequence. And voila! like lobsters we fall into the
trap.

Let’s see how that all worked out for Adam & Eve. Shortly
thereafter , they realized they were naked and covered themselves up, whereas
they had hitherto gone about naked without any shame. And then, worst of all,
they fell out of fellowship with God.
The Bible has it that God is walking
through he garden, and calls out to Adam asking where he is. Adam knew he had
disobeyed and thereby broken fellowship and hid. Is that not what we do when
we know we’ve done wrong, hiding from whomever we had harmed? Don’t we even try
to delude ourselves we can hide from God too?

When the moment if reckoning came, when God confronted them on their sin,
Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam tried to pass the buck to Eve. We see this
behaviour in our children, and also practice it ourselves to an extent.

And so, sentence was passed. Death (The wages of sin is death) . They
were not slain on the spot, but learned that indeed, they would eventually die.
“From the dust you came, to the dust you shall return”. Henceforth mankind would
eventually die, and moreover, they were now unfit to live in such a Holy place,
and were expelled from Eden, where they would henceforth earn their sustenance
through toil, while Eve would know the pain of childbirth. this is the penalty
for original sin, which would then be passed down through the generations . And
it is because of this that we need a redeemer. .
A guard was placed around
Eden so that no one could ever enter there without the permission of God. The
couple were provided with clothing made by God Himself, and thus Adam and Eve
became the first of a long line of exiled children.